Posts Tagged ‘Economy’

Besides the obvious information this video presents about wealth inequality inAmerica, much can be learned from this video about alternative ways to get your somewhat disheartening message across.

First off, the information being compared is slightly unusual. Instead of the normal financial numbers being thrown together, we are adding in the notion of what Americans believe the ideal economic distribution to be. It’s a merging of the actual and the hypothetical, and adds an interesting take on the way we each personally interact with and interpret numbers. The next outstanding feature about this short video is the method of visualization. The creators use two different infographics to emphasize their point – it’s a powerful use of reiteration without falling into redundancy. Equally, I think there’s something to be said about the use of colors here. This is a depressing topic and I could potentially see a good number of viewers not wanting to sit through the whole thing. The use of bright colors though, and the accompanying visually stimulating motion draws you in and in a way lightens the mood a touch. That being said, there’s also this dark piano music playing lightly in the background so as to let you know this is an issue that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Overall the entire presentation has a perfect mesh of light and dark, both visually and emotionally.

The other thing to note about this video is the fact that most people came across it via the website Upworthy. I’d be willing to wager that if you ask facebook users if they’ve ever been to Upworthy’s homepage, the majority would say no. And this would be in direct contrast to the number of people who would say yes when asked if they’ve ever watched a video on Upworthy. The site is a powerful tool for producing virality on the web – so much so in fact that it allows the videos and pieces to stand alone without their message being lost in the mode of presentation. It’s an inspiring way to reach the masses.